Bandai Namco/Koei Tecmo game puts pirates in Musou/Dynasty Warriors gameplay

It’s a good week for digital downloads on Nintendo platforms.

Get the full article at GameSpot

SQ Party Level2 NIER NighT – Evening of Madness event to be held on October 28.

The Square Enix published and Cavia-developed RPG NIER may have received average reviews, but the game’s soundtrack was still considered a high point by many players. Square Enix has already recognized the popularity of the soundtrack, releasing different arrangements of the game’s music. Now the publisher is taking NIER’s music on the road, announcing a musical concert in Japan featuring tunes from the action-RPG.

Gamers in Japan can check out the sweet sounds of NIER live this October.

According to the Twitter feed of the game’s producer Yosuke Saito (who is currently producing Dragon Quest X), the concert is called the “SQ Party LEVEL 2 NIER Night – Evening of Madness” and will be held on October 28. Featured artists include Go-qualia and World’s End Girlfriend, both of whom have performed on the recent NIER Tribute Album. Details on the venue and ticket pricing will be disclosed on the concert’s website shortly.

Apart from its soundtrack, NIER was praised for including varied elements from different genres of games, but was criticized for being an unfocused RPG that was less than the sum of its parts. The game’s music was also nominated for Best Original Music in GameSpot’s Best of 2010 feature.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Nathan Williams, singer-guitarist for the San Diego surf punks Wavves, is a weed-puffin’ bro with a "Life’s a Beach" ‘tude. Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham is a human cannonball who barrels across the stage shirtless, his gut bouncing while he bashes himself bloody with the mic. They’re an odd couple, but they’re close friends — and their bands are currently on tour together. (See dates here.)

Before last week’s kickoff show at Boston’s Royale, the pair sat down with SPIN to chat about partying with college kids, selling out to corporations, Wavves’ Primavera Sound debacle, and, of course, smoking weed, a pastime long enjoyed by Williams — which Abraham picked up after 16 years of being drug and alcohol free. "I started smoking pot last summer," Abraham admits, a blazing joint in his hand. "It took our friendship to the next level!"

How did you guys first meet?
Damian Abraham: I was one of those people who was reading about Nathan before I met him and I was like, ‘I don’t like this kid at all.’ It was at that point that every time you logged onto the internet, you read about Wavves and the natural hater that exists in me was just like, ‘Fuck this dude.’

Nathan Williams: [laughs!!!]

DA: Then I interviewed [Damian] at the Pitchfork Festival and I thought, ‘Oh, he’s really chill,’ and we started playing more and more shows together. The first time we really hung out was in England at the 1-2-3-4 Festival — where we smoked a lot.

What do you guys do for fun when you’re hanging out?
DA: Smoke a lot of pot. This is basically a relationship built entirely on pot. In Phoenix, I brought my vaporizer to their backstage area. [Laughs] Nathan and I were just talking about how since I’ve just discovered weed, I’ve now entered this whole new world that most people know to steer away from. Like, when a bunch of kids say, ‘Hey, do you want to come over to our house and smoke pot after the show’? You don’t do it. But I did. I went over to these kids’ house in England. And there’s, like, 23 kids in this room watching professional wrestling. (That’s another problem: I like marijuana and professional wrestling. Most people who share those interests are normally below the age of 25.) And over there they smoke it mixed with, like, 70 percent tobacco. And I start smoking it and all of the sudden I was, like, ‘Ugh, I don’t feel too good in my stomach.’ So I went into their bathroom and threw up. I’m just, like, ‘How embarrassing is it that I’m a 31-year-old father and I’m throwing up in some teenage dude’s dorm?’

NW: There was a night where [Wavves] played a college and we got so drunk that we got kicked out of the backstage area because I peed in the pipe organ they had back there.

DA: [laughs hysterically]

NW: And afterwards, these kids were like, ‘We got weed,’ so we went to their dorm room and it’s Alpha Beta Zeta Phi or whatever. We got in there and all of the sudden I’m having this moment on my own where I’m thinking: I’m 25 years old, sitting here with a bunch of college kids that are doing whippits. I’m just, like, ‘I gotta get out of here. This is horrible.’ College stuff.

So, basically, when you two are together you’re getting wasted with young kids. Anything else?
NW: And we talk about really dorky TV.

DA: Yeah. Dr. Phil. Maury. Trash TV. Nathan and I really gel on the level of low culture.

NW: [Laughs] It’s true.

DA: And bad movies.

NW: [Nathan points to the mini-flatscreen TV playing between them] While Bad Boys plays.

DA: Is this the first Bad Boys?

NW: Yeah, this is the good one.

Family fun: Fucked Up & Wavves get close backstage / Photo by Josh Reynolds

DA: Bad Boys really fell off at part 2. [Laughs] They really lost the direction of where they’re supposed to take this.

NW: [Laughs]

Damian, are you going to share your love for wrestling with Nathan during this tour?
DA: He likes wrestling, too. That was the other thing we really bonded over.

NW: I used to practice the moves on my little brother and he’d cry because I always hurt him. I tried to do Diamond Cutters to him.

DA: How many little brothers and sisters have experienced a Sharpshooter? Probably most.

What led you guys to collaborate on "Destroy" on Wavves’ new EP Life Sux?
DA: Nathan approached me about a year ago and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea for this EP. I want to do a bunch of different collaborations.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ The problem when you’re collaborating with another band though is that your schedules never line up. I think we would have been on tour together sooner if our schedules had lined up. But they’re always in Europe when we’re here or vice versa.

NW: We basically made this tour happen on the fact that, ‘Hey, we get to go on tour with our friends and have fun.’ Fuck anything else that’s going to get in our way. We’re all touring at the same time all of the time, so actually getting two of these things to mesh is pretty fucking hard.

DA: I think the new reality is that nobody’s making money from selling records, so every band is on tour all of the time. So on any given day, you’re playing against a lot of your friends. Like on our last tour on the west coast, we’d be playing against Cults, Austra, Cold Cave, Yuck…

NW: Shows that you would like to go to.

DA: So you might as well go out with your friends and that way you’re not competing against one another.

Can we expect you guys to get onstage together to do "Destroy"?
DA: I think we’ve got plans to. Definitely.

Have you been rehearsing it together?
DA: No [laughs]. That being said, if we were in the same city, we would have rehearsed it together.

NW: But to be fair, [Wavves has] only rehearsed just a couple of times by ourselves as a band — ever. I mean Wavves has probably practiced a total of seven times and, like, four of those times were last month. So I don’t think we’re going to be rehearsing it.

Are you guys going to alternate between who plays first and second throughout the tour?
NW: I’d prefer if Fucked Up played last because it’s a more intense live show than us. Also, I can get drunk earlier.

DA: I will say this, and I’m not just saying this because I’m being recorded right now: You guys have gotten a million times better. The first time that I saw Wavves live was not their proudest moment.

NW: No, it wasn’t.

DA: It was at Primavera Sound. The infamous Primavera set.

What was your perception of that show, Damian?
DA: I thought he partied way too hard. I knew the people he was partying with, too, and I’m like, ‘Whoa, they partied way too hard.’

NW: Yeah… I party-rocked too hard that night.

Wavves performs at Boston’s Royale on September 23, 2011 / Photo by Josh Reynolds

DA: But watching that set and then following the band to the point where they’re at now is awesome. Wavves have a really good set now. This is going to be the most fun tours I’ve ever been on.

Damian, you’re known for showing a lot of skin onstage. Are you going to take any cues from that on this tour, Nathan?
NW: Nobody wants to see me with my shirt off [laughs].

DA: Oh, yes they do. But there would be like a Justin Bieber moment. If Nathan took his shirt off, the show would be over. He’s only allowed to take his shirt off when they play second because there’s no way that I could follow that.

NW: My stage presence isn’t nearly as big — Fucked Up are a force to be reckoned with. I remember the first time I saw you guys live. It was … Damian, you’re burning your pants, by the way [the ash from Damian's joint had fallen onto his lap and began smoldering] …

DA: [laughs hysterically]

NW: [Laughs] I was just super, super taken aback by how willing he was to walk out into the crowd and hit himself with a microphone.

DA: That’s one of the benefits I have with being physically huge. It would take a lot for someone to kidnap me.

NW: If I get in the crowd, it’s hard to get back out.

Damian, Fucked Up’s latest album David Comes to Life is a more linear rock opera compared to your caustic past efforts. How do you feel about mixing older material with those new songs during the set?
DA: I want to make sure that the band never loses the plot and doesn’t think that the new material is necessarily better than the older songs. So we try to weigh it evenly. We do want to play more new songs just because as a band we’re less bored playing the new songs than we are with the old songs.

Are you playing the new songs sequentially on the road?
DA: No, no, no. We just mix it sonically. The record is your chance to be pretentious. But when you play live, you just owe your audience a good show.

Nathan, how did you like writing the score for that new MTV show, I Just Want My Pants Back?
NW: It was cool to work on because I’ve never done something like that. It’s like looking at a blank canvas because when they play the scene for you, there’s no music to it, so you’re just trying to take these fictional characters and figure out how they feel in this certain situation and what’s the appropriate mood music to put behind it. It was pretty fun to do.

Damian, how are you liking your gig hosting that music video show in Canada, The Wedge?
DA: It’s interesting. I’m enjoying it. I’m not under any pretense that I’m going to be the next Matt Pinfield or anything. But I do enjoy the fact that I can get stuff on the air that would not necessarily be on the air. I don’t get to play as much music as I would have liked. But maybe that’s better because I don’t have what you’d consider populist taste. I don’t know of anyone except for me who’d like an hour-long TV show that I program. But you get stuff on the air. I’ve had a bunch of my friend’s bands on the air. So from that perspective, it’s great. But the hard part’s been adjusting to a very different kind of corporate structure.

I was wondering about that. Both of you have done commercial stuff — nearly every indie band needs to these days to survive. So I’m curious if you think the term "selling out" means much in the music industry anymore?
DA: It still does. I’ll admit it, I’ve sold out. I’m not saying I’ve sold out to the level of some other people. But as soon as you take money, you are selling out. Like, you have taken what you’ve created and you’re lending it to someone else. That doesn’t mean that you’re a sellout forever and everything you do is now tainted. But you’ve made the decision to take that money.

NW: If you play a festival, whether it’s Pitchfork Festival or Mr. Super Indie Guy Festival, they’re getting money from Red Bull or somewhere. So you’re taking it somehow. So why not just take it when you can get it? I mean, I’m going to fucking have to pay my rent regardless if somebody says you’re a sellout or not. And I’m going to write the same songs that I would regardless if I make money from playing something corporate. But I’m not going to change the things that I say ever.

DA: Yeah.

NW: Regardless of my affiliation with MTV or anybody, I’m still talking about pissing my pants on Twitter. I’ll say whatever I feel like. You just have to make that conscious effort to say these are my opinions, these are not the opinions of somebody else.

DA: I had to change my byline on my Twitter profile to say that these views and opinions do not reflect that of MuchMusic [which airs The Wedge]. I included Fucked Up, too, because I figured that Fucked Up would also appreciate not being dragged out with me. But I had to put in MuchMusic because they were, like, ‘You do talk about some things that, you know…[laughs].’ And it’s not even necessarily people at MuchMusic. It’s the fact that MuchMusic is owned by another company, which is owned by another company.

NW: Right. That’s the thing. That’s where it gets tricky. You’re all owned by Nestlé. Everybody. There’s little to no way of getting around it.

DA: Unless you’re Propagandhi or another band that’s got a built-in fanbase that can afford to tour and make a decent living at it. But at this point, like Nathan said, you’re getting soft money through a roundabout way, like playing a festival. Or there’s direct money, from like playing a party for a skate shop that Nike underwrote, which is what I’ve done. I think that’s the reality. It’s kind of sad that it’s gone this way. But you can’t rewind five years, or 10 years, or now 12 years ago. Not that I would want to because I think there’s been a lot of amazing cultural developments. But you can’t go back and get people to buy records again. We love talking about this kind of stuff but it can get a little heavy.

NW: We had a heavy conversation in the car the other day, too. I was talking about how my grandpa used to kiss me on the mouth.

DA: I kissed my dad on the mouth. You don’t kiss your dad on the mouth?

NW: No, I don’t.

What kind of kisses are you talking about?
NW: Open mouth kisses [laughs].

DA: I kiss my parents on the mouth. There’s no tongue. And the mouth isn’t open. But, yeah, a little [makes a kissing sound with his lips]. ‘I kiss my daddy. You kiss my daddy.’ What’s that Lil Wayne line?

NW: It’s, ‘Damn right, I kissed my daddy. I think they pissed at how rich my daddy is. And I’m his kid, I stunt with my daddy.’

DA: That is the Sartre of our time.

Every month, SPIN editors go to lots of shows and listen to untold amounts of advance CDs to uncover the best new tunes. Here are this month’s hottest tracks: Read about the songs below and use the player to hear them all.

1. The Stepkids, “Wonderfox”
Get transported to a ’70s acid-dream sequence on a flying shag carpet of falsetto coos, starry harpsichord, and soul- slap bass. Spellbinding. (YouTube)

2. Gary Clark Jr., “Bright Lights”

The decade’s first new muh-fukkin’ bluesman roughs up the 12-bar, boasting about big-city bring-downs and slinging guitar mud onto the levee. (YouTube)

3. Feist, “How Come You Never Go There”
In her best bobo-Billie Holliday croak, the coffee- nation sensation blows a broken heart into a white puff of half-caff soul. (YouTube)

4. Hanni El Khatib, “Build. Destroy. Rebuild.”
L.A. garage rocker’s hot-rod guitars give heat to his howling proclamation: “Ain’t no future / In the youth.” There may be in him, though. (YouTube)

5. Youth Lagoon, “Cannons”

Shy Boise boy sings like he’s a wallflower in his own bedroom, as a Fender Rhodes twinkles and drum machine thuds. (YouTube)

6. A.A. Bondy, “The Heart Is Willing”

Organ chords open and close like sly irises and guitar notes bend into question marks as the haunted singer- songwriter’s flesh grows weak. (YouTube)

7. Balam Acab, “Oh, Why”

Wispy ripples of harp and cherubic voices gently harden into idyllic childhood nostalgia so beautiful that you actually start to believe it. (YouTube)

8.Chairlift, “Amanaemonesia”

A title like a disease and a chorus just as catchy. Caroline Polachek’s vocal swoops as if she’s singing from a Tron light cycle. (YouTube)

9. I Break Horses, “Winter Beats”

Clearly, the Ice Capades’ only hope of revival is adopting this slo-mo, synth-pop iron lotus as its theme song. (YouTube)

10. Danny Brown, “Monopoly”
Making Eminem sound like yacht rock, the screechy MC-fiend brazenly insults the bustedness of your girl’s toes. Come on, now! (YouTube)

11. Lemonade, “ThePlace Where You Belong”

Brooklyn indie-dance trio turn Shai’s R&B obscurity (from Beverly Hills Cop III!) into a balmy, burbling, even haunting cry for help. (YouTube)

12. Cass McCombs, “The Same Thing”
From his second album of 2011 — twitchier tempo, more roguish vocals, but just as masterfully modulated sense of ’70s soft-rock unease. (YouTube)

13. Stefano Noferini, “Fucking House Musik”
This longtime Italian dance-scene habitué́ uncorks a relentlessly pistoning groove that allows for no second opinions. (YouTube)

14. MainAttrakionz, “Swaggin’ Hard”
Over a broken beat of what sounds like wind chimes and water jugs, the trippy Bay Area rappers free-associate about whatever just floated past their spaceship. (YouTube)

15. Mayer Hawthorne, “A Long Time”
The Detroit soul archivist croons a poignantly hopeful, lovingly specific ode to his hometown’s greatest legacy. (YouTube)

The hip-hop world lost one of its founding figures Thursday with the death of record executive, singer-songwriter, and producer Sylvia Robinson, co-owner of Sugar Hill Records. As The New York Times‘ obituary notes, she was 75.

Sometimes called “the mother of hip-hop,” Robinson was best known for masterminding the first commercially successful rap single. She brought together the three rappers known as the Sugarhill Gang and, with husband Joe Robinson, formed Sugar Hill Records to release their song “Rapper’s Delight,” which went on to sell more than 8 million copies.

Though the Sugarhill Gang had no other hits, Sylvia Robinson went on to sign Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, producing their pioneering 1982 song “The Message.”

Prior to her role in popularizing the nascent rap genre, Robinson had a number of hits as an R&B singer. In the 1950s, as part of the duo Mickey & Sylvia, she topped the R&B charts with 1957′s “Love Is Strange.” In 1973, now solo and using the name Sylvia, she released the quiet-storm radio staple “Pillow Talk.”

Grandmaster Flash’s recordings included the lyrical boast “Ms. Rob doin’ the job,” Public Enemy frontman Chuck D pointed out to Billboard.biz. “Sylvia’s artistic talent and public notoriety have been mimicked without due credit for the past 30 years in the recorded art form she birthed,” he said. “She was a black woman who pushed the button and turned the key to crank up a billion-dollar industry.”

Robinson died of congestive heart failure at the New Jersey Institute of Neuroscience, where she had been in a coma, a family spokeswoman told the Times. Robinson is survived by her sons Joey, Leland, and Rhondo, and 10 grandchildren. She lost her husband to cancer in 2000.

In early September, a new T-Pain song featuring Wiz Khalifa and Lily Allen surfaced on the Web. Now there’s a video for the track, titled "5 O’Clock." Watch the clip here (via Nah Right).

It’s a pensive contemporary R&B ballad, with rumbling
beats, pealing organs, and, of course, T-Pain’s Auto-Tuned lover-man
vocals. The song will likely appear on T-Pain’s upcoming RevolveR, though more than a year after the "rapper turnt sanga" told MTV News the album was finished, a release date and other details are still uncertain.

Lily Allen’s contribution is a sample from her tender, piano-powered love song "Who’d of Known," off her 2009 album It’s Not Me, It’s You. Though "5 O’Clock" samples the song’s first verse, in this context her hushed, lilting lines about sneaking up to a lover’s bedroom might actually be catchier than the original song’s chorus. Pittsburgh rapper Khalifa is better known for his weed talk, but his echoey rhymes here match T-Pain come-on for come-on.

According to Baller Status, the video is set in the streets of Amsterdam, perhaps not so far from Khalifa’s typical head space after all. A trench-coated T-Pain leaves the club and wanders home to his waiting woman, but first he — and sweater-wearing confrere Khalifa — have some thoughts to get off their chests.

T-Pain has collaborated outside the hip-hop and R&B realm before — with Taylor Swift, for instance.

Khalifa earlier this year released his major-label debut Rolling Papers, which had U.S. first-week sales of 197,000 copies, according to Billboard.

Allen married boyfriend Sam Cooper in June, and is reportedly expecting a baby.

Adaptation of 3D dungeon role-playing game from Aquaplus

TV anime of Kazue Katō’s supernatural manga to end on Sunday

Mangaoh retracts post about anime of Meguru Kazami’s harem comedy light novels